Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Relic by Renee Collins ~ Review

Title: RelicAuthor: Renee CollinsGenre: Young Adult, FantasyLength: 400 pagesPublisher: Entangled TeenRelease Date: August 27, 2013Source: NetGalleyReviewed by: JasmynAfter a raging fire consumes her town and kills her parents, Maggie Davis is on her own to protect her younger sister and survive best she can in the Colorado town of Burning Mesa. In Maggie’s world, the bones of long-extinct magical creatures such as dragons and sirens are mined and traded for their residual magical elements, and harnessing these relics’ powers allows the user to wield fire, turn invisible, or heal even the worst of injuries.

Working in a local saloon, Maggie befriends the spirited showgirl Adelaide and falls for the roguish cowboy Landon. But when she proves to have a particular skill at harnessing the relics’ powers, Maggie is whisked away to the glamorous hacienda of Álvar Castilla, the wealthy young relic baron who runs Burning Mesa. Though his intentions aren’t always clear, Álvar trains Maggie in the world of relic magic. But when the mysterious fires reappear in their neighboring towns, Maggie must discover who is channeling relic magic for evil before it’s too late.

Relic is a thrilling adventure set in a wholly unique world, and a spell-binding story of love, trust, and the power of good.

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This is a different kind of fantasy novel. Instead of going back to the lands of castles, knights, and mages, we go to a sort wild west frontier world. The ancient mythological creatures all existed and have now gone extinct, but their magic was captured in the relics and bones they left behind. People who can harness the magic trapped in these relics are highly sought after, and it gives them a lot of powerful abilities.

Maggie falls into the dangerous world of relics when her family is killed in a relic-spawned fire. Her life takes some really crazy turns from working in a traditional wild west saloon to living in the local mansion on the whim of the owner. He promises to teach how to harness the power of the relics, but of course, we have to have a bad guy, and he's it. He has a lot of ulterior motives. I was so happy to see that Maggie caught on to them so quickly. She's a smart girl, and seeing that play out without her blindly going along was quite refreshing.

The big drawback of this was that it ends like a series - but there's nothing more out there. The ending was really a bit of a letdown. While there's a lot that's wrapped up, there's promises made and more things to go do and figure out.

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